Introduction

Last week I introduced the idea of using mind mapping techniques for Building Navigational Taxonomies. This week and next, I will be covering topics that are much “mushier” compared to the hard-edged result of a navigation map. I have found that mind mapping is a great way to prioritize a list of tasks, and to nail down scope in a form that helps keep the project on-track.

Note: I use Mindjet’s MindManager for Mind Mapping. There are other options out there, but I’ve been very happy with MindManager.

Priority Mapping

When you have a number of stakeholders providing input to a planned SharePoint deployment, you are often faced with an ever expanding list of wants and needs, but stuck with a fixed time-line and budget. How can you approach the process of prioritizing the tasks and getting agreement from the stakeholders on what will be done (in the current phase, at least)?

I was faced with this problem several months ago as I was busy making lists and “white-boarding” with my team – and feeling no closer to a solution – when it occurred to me to try listing all the tasks in MindManager.

For the sake of space and privacy, the examples below are simplified versions taken from my actual project.

Initial Mind Map

Ok, so now I had my list. I know that the first two items were essential and not up for discussion. “Foundation” refers to Information Architecture, Governance Planning, Security/Permissions, etc… these sub-elements were all included in the original map.

Next, I added my stakeholders. In this case, the Chief Operating Officer, who was our project’s sponsor,and the VP of Business Applications, who was the PM from the customer side.

I also added a top-level heading to capture dependancies that would have to be considered and taken into account.

Additional Content in the Mind Map

We had a meeting with the stakeholders. To begin the meeting, I collapsed the deployment backlog section and asked the stakeholders to list their individual priorities for this phase of the deployment project. I noted their priorities directly onto the mind map, which was on the projector for everyone to see.

I used a feature of MindManager to tag each priority item with a marker indicating its relative level of importance to that stakeholder. As soon as the priorities were marked, I opened up the complete list of items and drew arrows connecting the stakeholders’ priority lists to the backlog items. I then expanded the dependency list I had previously prepared, and showed the links that I had created.

Prioritization Icons

We were now able to review the deployment backlog together, and apply priority markers to the actual backlog items and to the dependencies that had to be dealt with during this phase of the project.

I was quite happy with the outcome of this process, but I was pleasantly surprised when the stakeholders asked for printed copies of this map that they could post on their walls. Whenever they would have meetings with others who would ask about “their” bit of functionality, they could point at the map and say, “Here’s what we’re doing in this phase. Yours is on the list, and we’ll re-prioritize during the next round.”

Conclusion

I will return to the thesis that I raised in my first article: Mind mapping gives you the opportunity to instantly and visually convey your ideas. By building this list in front of the stakeholders, and tagging the priorities, we were able to arrive at our priority list in a single meeting and we had concrete evidence, posted on their walls, of what we were going to do.

Next week I’ll talk about another type of prioritization exercise when we look at brainstorming sessions with executives that occur early in the planning cycle, helping them determine what they want SharePoint to do for their organizations.

Author: Ruven Gotz

Ruven Gotz is a senior consultant with Ideaca, a Microsoft Gold Partner based in Toronto. For the past five years he has been focused on delivering award-winning SharePoint solutions (most recently, a Microsoft Impact Award for Information Worker Solution of the Year, 2008).

Ruven’s blog is at http://spinsiders.com/ruveng and you can follow him at http://twitter.com/ruveng.